'You're Next' is full of grisly surprises

You're Next opens on such a clichéd, tired slasher-movie note you may be tempted to walk out.

But don't leave! It's a ploy, a false start to ease the audience into complacency.

A couple is having sex in a gorgeous, isolated woodland house as a machete-wielding masked man watches through the window.

A noise draws out the sexy woman - her decolletage in full view. She's quickly dispatched to the afterlife. The crazed dude writes "You're next" on the window in her blood.

How many times have we seen this one before?

Not many, considering the clever plot twists and twisted backstory reveals we're about to encounter.

Directed with impressive control and confidence by horror specialist Adam Wingard (Homesick, A Horrible Way to Die), You're Next is a wickedly clever play on the genre that takes you by the scruff of the neck and drags you through 90 minutes of the most inventive mayhem, murder, and pitch-black comedy you're likely to see this year.

It's set at a family reunion at an even more breathtaking manse down the path from the dead couple's house. Paul (Rob Moran) and Aubrey Davison (Barbara Crampton) are celebrating their 30th anniversary by spending the weekend with their four grown children- Drake (Joe Swanberg), the alpha male; airy dreamer Aimee (Amy Seimetz); Crispin (AJ Bowen), the neglected middle child; and, last but not least, the adorable baby of the family, goth rockboy Felix (Nicholas Tucci).

Each brings a romantic partner, including Crispin, whose girlfriend, Erin (Sharni Vinson), an Australian grad student with a shady past, is quickly singled out as the film's hero.

All is going well, with Drake picking on Crispin while Aimee and Felix watch helplessly, until thwack! an arrow crashes through the window, hitting Aimee's boyfriend, Tariq (Wingard friend and Delaware filmmaker Ti West), smack in the middle of his forehead. Thwack!

The carnage that follows is epic in porportions, as a group of ninja-silent, black-clad killers in cute animal masks pick off family members one by one. Soft, spoiled, rich, they can't defend themselves.

Except for Erin, who begins to push back, unleashing a beautifully orchestrated tidal wave of violence. Her beau is disturbed, excited, grateful, and terrified in equal measure as he learns just how frightfully good Erin is at killing people.

Who are the attackers, and what do they want? Who is Erin?

That'd be telling.

Directed by Adam Wingard. With Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, Joe Swanberg, AJ Bowen. Distributed by Lionsgate Films.

Running time: 1 hour, 36 mins.

Parent's guide: R (extreme violence, gore, coarse language, smoking)

Playing at: area theaters

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